French Citizens Turn to UK Trafficking to Make a Quick Euro

French authorities have revealed the corrupting effect of migrant camps in Calais, where thousands lie in wait to cross to the United Kingdom and are willing to offer locals as much as €2,000 per person to make it possible.

Although more expensive, bribing a local to give you a lift in a trip across the English Channel is significantly less risky than clinging to the bottom of a lorry, and potentially falling under the wheels. French police have uncovered, reportsTheLocal.fr, that unemployed people and students have been cajoled into the illegal migrant trade in return for cash.

Migrants queue for food in Calais, France. A transient population of thousands moved through the Channel port on their way to the United Kingdom.

Commenting on the cases of people who had been duped, or persuaded into giving lifts to migrants accross the border, Boulogne lawyer Emmanuelle Osmont said: “In the past the traffickers, who are often from Asia or Albania, recruited people around them to do these journeys, but the risks became too great. Then they turned to the truck drivers, but now its local French people who are suffering from financial difficulties.

“We have even had two or three students up before the courts and they are targeting local business people who may be struggling to pay their bills or their taxes, because of the ongoing economic crisis… The mafia is benefiting from that”.

French people becoming casually involved in human trafficking for cash were putting themselves at great risk, he said, not only because of the harsh legal penalties involved, but also because the ruthless smuggling gangs are extremely dangerous. It is reported they are unafraid to even go about in Northern France armed with AK-47 assault rifles.

Remarking that some gave the lifts to do a “good deed”, Osmont’s comments may suggest there was an ideological motivation behind the behaviour of some students.

One man, who had been caught smuggling illegals across the Channel in his van said of his experience with the trafficking gangs: “I was offered €2,000 per person. At first I hesitated but I needed the money and said yes. It’s a trap. Once you are in, it’s very difficult to get out. The recruiters are there all the time, every day, they put pressure on us.

“Physically, they are imposing. It’s a mafia, so you have to be careful. It’s very dangerous”.

The volume of human cargo moving from North Africa, across the Mediterranean and then directly through Europe to the United Kingdom is staggering.

Breitbart Londonreported earlier this month on the remarkable spectacle of a number of nomadic migrant camps that had sprung up in the centre of Paris. Over 500 migrants living in squalid tent-cities established under railway bridges told reporters they were resting there before making the next leg of their journey to Calais.